Chapter 183: Flash boiled

Chapter 183: Flash boiled

Sofia could have maybe broken through the shield and flown away, but she stayed to be able to trace the mana back to its caster. Sure enough, she managed to get a feel for the general direction of the spellcaster, who had to also be inside the shield. She looked in that direction, but all she could see was a swarm of infantrymen in black and red.

Unless its for a single target, many of their soldiers will die

I got what I came for anyway. Better get ready before it goes off, even if I should be safer at the edge of the shield.

Sofia proceeded to do a small jump, during which she did her best to hug her knees and take as little space as possible despite the two layers of armor she was wearing. As she fell back down, she summoned what was left of the orichalcum vein she had found.

It had been more than enough to make her three armor, but they only made one with an extra small chestplate on the side for Aliths Dopple. So where was the rest? It had been turned into a protective cocoon!

Zerei had baptized it The EGG after its shape, and as the name implied, it was a thick and empty human-sized orichalcum-forged eggshell. It boasted a lot of protective enchantments carved from the inside and was essentially a portative bunker. It even had a handle and hooks to allow Pareth to slot it inside his torso by latching it onto his ribs.

Sofia managed to summon it around her on the first try, which was something she failed to do about once every ten attempts. She immediately started to fill it up with mana. The enchantments inside were much hungrier than those in her armor which had to balance upkeep and effectiveness. In turn, they gave much better protection.

While doing that, she looked through Pareths eyes. He still attacked the soldiers surrounding him as if nothing strange was happening. Any time now, when the mana around stops expanding

Now!

Pareth teleported near Sofia. He appeared in the air outside the bell tower, his hand reaching out, destroying the railing, and grabbing the orichalcum egg. He fell, destroying the house below, falling through its three floors until he hit the ground. Deactivating his armor, he shoved Sofia inside and reactivated it. [Sanctified grounds] activated right as Sofias vision turned white.

The light was so intense that it shone even through the orichalcum ball. The air was blazing, Sofia was sweating inside the ball, and

That was it. She wasnt losing any life, and neither did Pareth. From Pareths senses, she got one more clue about the nature of the attack, the sound of violent winds.

Sofias life suddenly dropped by a fifth. Right, Pareth was originally near there because the birds had found one of the targets. Unlucky.

[Key Targets : 5/5] ->[Key Targets : 4/5]

As the light died down, Pareth looked around. Nothing was left inside the shields radius that wasnt reduced to dark ashes. The houses, the streets, and even the city walls had blackened and crumbled.

No, a buried city under the city?

It looks about ready to collapse, but thats a perfect hiding place.

To call it a buried city was to oversell it. It was a bunch of half-collapsed tunnels with remnants of houses carved directly into the stone and dirt. It was utterly dark, and the air was stale, but that wasnt an issue for Sofia. She canceled the graveyard when she found a dead end and cast it again from there to recenter the skills radius and get through. Like this, she put some distance between her and the pursuers above. A few times, she also went deeper when she found suitable tunnels.

They sure have a lot of stuff buried under that city.

Im probably safe now?

Scary.

This trial is way scary.

I know this is one of the later floors, but still.

Sofia sat down in the Suns generosity ritual she drew on the ground. She watched her health and mana inch back up.

Anyone else at my level caught by all of these guys would die in an instant. If they even survived the fire attack. But theres something like 400 people who made it out of 1200 people who got here. One out of three. Thats a lot. There must be a safer way to save the city.

I wonder if theres a way to complete this by siding with the invaders. I assume if you can negotiate a temporary cease-fire, that could technically count? Its not like the objective says you must save the place and ensure it survives in the long term. Maybe rendition is even a correct if twisted, way to save the city from destruction, at the price of its inhabitants life or liberty

But whats certain is that Im probably the only idiot who chose to try to destroy the army and lived to tell the tale.

Well. Most people would give up when they cant escape the attack within the shield, so they would at least survive, but the point stands.

Now that I think about it I could have also avoided the attack by going underground with the graveyard. I had no real way of knowing it from the start, but there was enough time to cast it. Thatll become easier when I can prime the staff and halve the channeling time. But it needs so much mana.

Sofia noticed something very late through her mana senses as she spoke to herself.

Someone had followed her.